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i Soldiers of the Lost Cause and Successful Defenders of the 

Union : 

This is a great occasion, and an extraordinary compliment 
is extended to me by the invitation to address you. I appre- 
hend that my lack of ability will poorly vindicate the wisdom 
'>■ of the selection. 

Thirty-two years after one of the bloodiest conflicts, in the 
history of battles, between the gallant soldiers who fought 
for the Union, and the Confederates who fought for separate 
National existence, on the field of Chickauiauga — the 19th 
and 20th days of September, 1863 — Saturday and Sunday — is 
receiving its second baptism into the everlasting history of 
the great events of the world. 

This fraternal meeting and participation in the dedica- 
tion of the great National Park which will point out the 
scenes of the conflict to succeeding generations, for hundreds 
of years, marks a new era in the history of civilization. 

In no book was it ever recorded that the battle-scarred 
, soldiers of two opposing armies ever before m^t as brethren 
^ on such a field of strife to mark with enduring monuments 
where they shed each others blood. 

The good example was first set by members of Congress, 
who served in the opposing armies, voting for an appropria- 
tion of money from the National Treasui'v to purchase, 
— mark and beautify this great Park which properly embraces 
not only the field of Chickamauga, on which the Confedera- 
tes were successful, but also that of Missionary Ridge, where 
at a later day, the Union forces were equally victorious. 

But a few months ago we saw unveiled in the city of Chi- 
cago a monument to the Confederate dead. 

That caused not only many old Confederates to pause and 
think how the mellowing influence of time smooths dowr. the 
wrinkled front of war, but impressed the younger generation 
with the fact that the memories of the great struggle now 
belong alone to history. 

This great gathering and the fraternal feeling manifested 
will give to the historian, for record, something new under the 
sun. This great occasion is'a higher honor to the Union veteran 
than to the Confederate, because he was a conquorer, and 
yet he indulges no vain, or offensive boast, over his fallen 
rival. It is a high compliment to the Confederate that his pro- 
wess and patriotism are thus acknowledged. It is patriotic 
and sensible, on the part of the Union veteran because it 
commends the side he fought for to the more generous con- 
sideration of the younger generation of Southerners. 

The Union veteran, by this fraternity, extolls his own gal- 



lantry and high soldiery qualities, by which alone, he was 
ever able to triumpli over such stubborn and determined 
foes. 

It is complimentary to the Confederate veteran, in this way 
to acknowledge defeat, though accomplished by overpower- 
ing numbers, and to strike hands with his late adversaries as 
honorable men ; and it is not only commendable in the Con- 
federate, but highly honorable and patriotic, for him and his 
late foeman to meet here on this occasion, which 
proclaims to the world that we are a completely re-united 
nation ; that we really have peace. 

This meeting is a most impressive presentation, to the 
civilized people of the entire world, of the highest observance 
of the great national code of honor. 

ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA. 

I have been designated to represent, on this occasion, troops 
from the army of Northern Virginia who came down to rein- 
force the army of Tennessee. This task should have been 
committed to abler hands. 

I was one of those who in an humble way performed a 
conspicious part in the battle. I commanded the 15th Ala- 
bama Infantry Regiment, and a part of the time, on the after- 
noon of the 19th, I commanded four Regiments of Law's 
Brigade. Two entire divisions and a battalion of Artillery 
were transferred out here, but the only Brigades which ar- 
rived in time to participate in the battle were Benning's Geor- 
gia, Robertson's Texas and Law's Alabama Brigades of 
Hood's Division; and Kershaw's South Carolina and Humph- 
rey's Mississippi Brigades of McLaw's Division. 

These troops were all old veterans who had seen much 
service and had been commanded through many engage- 
ments by excellent officers and never had known defeat. 

It is not expected of me that I should give a detailed ac- 
count of the conduct of these Brigades, or the Regiments 
composing tlie same. It. is enough for me to say that their 
gallant conduct was fully up to the highest standard they 
had erected for thomselvos at Manassas, or Bull Run, at 
Seven Pines, Meadow- Bridge, Gaines' Mill, Frazier's Farm, 
Malvern Hill, Cedar Run, Sharpsburg, Fredricksburg, 
Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, and some of the regiments 
were with Jackson in his celebrated valley campaign in 
1862. 

The roar of the deadly musketry and the deafening thunders 
of the artillery were noises with which they were familiar ; 
and at Chickamauga on Sunday thei-e stood before them a 
living wall of brave and determined men, yet when Long- 
street said "forward my men," they moved like a thunder 
storm, which no line^ however strong, and even though 



double, could long resist, or withstand, and they had not 
drank a drop of powdered whisky as one of the speakers up- 
on the Union side has alleged. They needed no such stimu- 
lant, but without fear of consequences did their duty nobly. 

The Union lines were broken on that part of the field, and 
at the last point of the heroic resistance there fell before the 
fire of my regiment that accomplished and lamented soldier 
and poet, Gen'l. Lytle, the author of "Dying Egypt, Dying." 

In this struggle — just at the turn of the tide — my Regiment 
captured a two gun battery, turned and discharged one of 
the pieces which was loaded and the shell exploded within 
three feet of General Rosenci'ans' head, from which he 
miraculously escaped without injury, as he told me since the 
war. I replied ' 'well General I would have been delighted 
to have killed you then, but now I am glad that you escaped 
unhurt." 

bragg's mistake. 

At the close of the battle, with victory on his side General 
Bragg made the mistake, too often made during our war, of 
failing vigorously to pursue the re-treating foe. One or two 
days thereafter he deliberately moved up his army and be 
seiged Chattanooga. Longstreet now re-enforced by the 
Brigades of Jenkin's South Carolina and Anderson's Georgia 
of Hood's Division, Bryan's and Waiford's Georgia Brigades 
of McLaws's Division was still on the left, his command ex- 
tending to the west side of Lookout mountain . 

There seems to be considerable difference in opinion as to 
the numbers of the respective armies engaged in the battle of 
Chickamauga. I listened with great pleasure to the speech 
of the distinguished and able gentleman from Illinois, Gene- 
ral Palmer, who was an officer of high rank and bore a con- 
spicuous part in the battle. I know his integrity forbids any 
erroneous statement ; he gave the number from the data he 
found accessible. In this way he concluded that the Confed- 
erate force was about 60,600 men and the Federal force en- 
gaged about 57,400 or 57,500 men thus making a difference of 
about 3000 in favor of the Confederates. lam satisfied that 
the gentleman's data included Longstreet 's entire command, 
all the troops transferred with him from the arjny of North- 
ern Virginia. I have already stated the names of four Bri- 
gades of these troops which did not arrive until the 21st, 
the day after the conclusion of the battle. Jenkeu's Brigade 
was a ver}'^ large one, but the ave^'age of the four was about 
1,500 men each , and that makes a difference of 6,000, which 
deducted from Bragg's supposed force would leave him 3,000 
men weaker than his adversary, 

But whatever may be said on this point it is a fact that the 
two armies were pretty equally matched in numbers. Gen'l 
Palmer very candidly admitted the defeat of Rosencrans, and 



undertook to account for it by saying that Rosencrans made a 
mistake in ordering Woods' Division from his right to the 
support of Reynolds on the left, or left centre. 

Bragg 's plan of attack for Sunday morning was that Polk, 
who commanded the right wing, should at sun rise make a 
heavy assault upon the Union left wing, drive it back upon 
the centre and obtain possession of the passes through the 
ridge to Chattanooga. Then Longstreet, who commanded 
the left wing, was to make a furious assault upon the Union 
lines confronting him and that army thus dislocated and con- 
fused by Polk's success of the fore-noon was to be crushed 
and utterly routed. Polk did not begin the assault until 
about eight o'clock and not then with such force and vigor as 
to accomplish the object according to the plan ; his part of 
the battle was wavering and fluctuating, first one side driving 
and then the other, with no decisive advantages to either. 
From these persistent attacks by Bragg 's right wing Rosen- 
crans was impressed with the idea that this part of the field 
was where the main conflict would be waged. His order 
therefore transferring Wood's Division to his left was to 
strengthen his lines there against the repeated assaults. 

About eleven o'clock when Longstreet perceived this move- 
ment, thus weakening the second line of Rosencrans, he ord- 
ered his wing forward to a vigorous assault and broke to 
pieces the right wing of Rosencrans ; thus weakened, he drove 
it from the field and reformed his lines at right angles with 
Polk's wing and assaulted Snodgrass Hill and the adjacent 
hills and ridges held by Thomas, who never was driven in 
disorder from the hill but retired about 8 o'clock p. m. 

Why Polk's wing, during this last assault, lay still and 
failed to advance I 'do not understand. Had Polk thrown his 
wing forward and broken Thomas' single line of battle north 
of the Snodgrass range of hills, nothing could have saved 
Thomas from utter rout and the capture of a large part of 
his command. 

I was sent over into Lookout Valley where the 4th Ala- 
baman under Col. Bowles was picketing the river as sharp- 
shooters near the end of Raccoon mountain and shooting the 
drivers and teams when they attempted to use the dirt wagon 
road on the other side of the river. The picket line was ex- 
tended by companies from ray Regiment clear up to Brown's 
ferry. I had in reserve six companies of Infantry, number- 
ing about two hundred men, and a section of the Louisana 
Battery. For three weeks we held this position. Rosencrans 
was restricted to one wagon road to supply his army which 
reached a conditioji producing grave apprehension that it 
would linve to retreat, which it was not prepared to do, or 
surrender which it much less desired to do. The valley was 
the key to Bragg's advantageous position. Its continued 



possession rendered Chattanooga untenable by the Union 
army. 

A plan was devised to remove my command, and thus 
raise the blockade ; and when General Grant assumed com- 
mand it was carried out on the night of the 26th of October, 
when he succeeded in landing under Gen. Hazen twenty-two 
hundred men on my side at the Ferry. I made the best re- 
sistance I could with my handfull of men, but just as day 
was breaking on the 27th I was severely wounded and car- 
ried from the field. 

I had for two days reported indications and asked for rein- 
forcements to resist the attack, but they came not until that 
morning when it was too late. Thus we lost Lookout Val- 
ley. And Hooker's two corps, which came by way of Bridge- 
port, were thus enabled to capture Lookout Mountain, after 
Longstreet's troops were withdrawn therefrom. 

When I got back to Lookout Creek, after having been 
wounded, as stated, I met General Law with seven Regiments 
coming to reinforce me. I told him that he was too late and 
that if he would ride up on a spur of the mountain next to 
the river he could with his field glass see all over the Valley. 
He did so and on his return, remarked thatrl was right, that 
there was a pontoon bridge across the river at the ferry and 
that an entire corps of the Union army was then in the Val- 
ley. He said he had come according to his orders. The sun 
was then about one hour high. Too slow! Too slow ! He 
was ordered to come too late. Somebody had woefully blun- 
dered. A newspaper correspondent who signed his commu- 
nications "P. W. A.," undertook to blame ine for the loss of 
Lookout Valley. I had succeeded in holding it for three 
weeks with only two Regiments and two pieces of Artillery 
assigned to this duty in the face of an immense army in 
Chattanooga and two corps just below on the opposite side 
at Bridgeport. I made two reports to General Jenkins, as 
Division Commander, and late the evening before I was driven 
out I made one to Longstreet through his Adjutant-General 
and appealed, after stating the facts, for immediate reinforce- 
ments, but they were not sent until next morning, when too 
late. 

With that Valley in our possession we had all the Rail- 
roads, the river, and one wagon road on the other side was 
all that Rosecrans had by which to supply his army . The 
men and animals were very near the starvation point when 
the blockade was raised by driving me out as I have de- 
scribed . 

General Jenkins brought his immediate command across 
the mountain late that evening and the battle of Wauhatchee 
occurred that or the next night and our people got the worst 
of it. 



6 

A little red headed boy named "Billy" Betliune, from Co- 
lumbus, Ga., came to me just before the battle of Chicka- 
mauga and desired to be mustered in as a soldier. I declined 
because he was but fourteen years old and not well grown at 
that. After the battle he told me that if I still refused to 
take him as a soldier he would go off and join some other 
command. I told him that he might remain with the Regi- 
ment without being mustered in and at the next battle I 
would give him a gun and allow him to try his hand and see 
how he liked it. On the morning of the 27th of October, 
before day , when I was preparing my small command for the 
attack at Brown's Ferry, I felt some one pull my sleeve. It 
was little "Billy." He said : ''Colonel, do you remember 
your promisa?" I ordered that a gun and cartridge box be 
given him, which was done, and he went through the engage- 
ment unhurt. The next night at Wauhatchee he was not so 
fortunate. The Major who was in command of the Regiment 
was down near the bridge after our line was broken and the 
men were straggling back and taking out wounded comrades. 
An Irishman who belonged to the Regiment came along with 
some one on his back. The Major called out : 

"Who is that?" 

He answered: -'Jimmy Rutledge, sir." 

"Who is that you are carrying out?" said the Major. 

"Billy Bethune,sir." 

"Is he wounded?" 

"He is, sir." 

' 'How is he wounded?" 

"He is shot in the back, sir." 

At that moment Billy's childish voice rang out on the night 
air : "Major, he is a damned liar ; I am shot across the back." 
(Loud laughter. ) 

Bragg was forced to retire to Missionary Ridge. Long- 
street's Troops did not participate in the battle which occurred 
there on the 25th day of November, as he had gone with 
them and Buckner's division to Knoxville to resist Burnside's 
advance . 

The Confedarate strategy attempted was for Longstreet to 
crush Burnside, or put him hors dccombat, and return in time 
to reinforce Bragg before Grant would be ready to assault 
him. But Burnside, with a superior force, was too strongly 
intrenched and Longstreet could not dislodge, nor drive him, 
and while attempting it Sherman reinforced Grant, they at- 
tacked and beat Bragg and drove him to Dalton, Ga., and in 
consequence Longstreet raised the siege of Knoxville and re- 
treated into East Tennessee, and thus ended the campaign of 
1863. 

CAUSES OF THE WAR. 

Fellow Soldiers : — Pardon a few reflections upon the pri- 



mary causes of the unprecedented and unequal struggle, and 
the consequences of the war. "Speak of me as I am, noth- 
ing extenuate nor set down aught in malice ; then will you 
speak of one who loved not wisely, but too well." 

We poor rebels lost all save honor, and now will you listen 
patiently, for a brief period, to one of them while giving his 
side as impartially as he can? 

The old Confederate veteran can look backward without 
shame ; he can stand erect with a proud conscienciousness 
that he fought for a just cause, which though lost was par- 
tially won, and say to all the world, let the history of the 
great conflict be penned by an impartial hand, fully and fairly 
to both sides, and there will not be a sentence, a line, or a 
word in it to bring a blush of shame to the cheek of him who 
did his duty in following the red starry cross of the late Con- 
federacy. 

Let the blasphemous mouths of the bloody shirt shriekers 
be closed, and the truth be told, and our cause, and the hero- 
ism which sustained it for four immortal years will illuminate 
the brightest chapters of the true history of that great con- 
flict. 

There never was a war, wherein the object of the invader 
was anything short of extermination, in which there w^as 
more involved, or the result of which was fraught with 
greater consequences ; nor was there ever a war, the real 
causes of which, were so imperfectly understood by other 
nations and many even of the American people. 

One of the underlying causes of the conflict of arms was 
that in our citizenship there were two distinct t3^pes of civili- 
zation — the Cavalier and the Puritan. Between these there 
were frequent conflicts in the mother country centuries ago. 

They were transplanted to this country by many of the 
Cavaliers settling in the Southern States and the Puritans in 
the Northern and Eastern States of the Union. Both were 
high types of civilization, but utterly unlike. 

The first well defined distinction between them was in the 
reign of Queen Elizabeth and the first of the Stuarts, along 
about the middle of the 16th century. 

The dissenters from the Church of England who advocated 
a purer doctrine and a higher life assumed to possess all the 
Godliness and virtue, and not satisfied with these, assumed 
to think for others , to prescribe rules to govern the consciences 
of others and who in a Pharasasical spirit thanked God that 
they were not as other men. These were called Puritans. 

In this country they retained much of their original faith 
and practices until tlfe lessons of the war vastly improved 
their manners. 

Cromwell, whose greatness was equalled only by his mean- 
ness and cruelty, was of this type. 



8 

Those wlio adhered to the Church and the Parliament and 
supported Charles the 1st were called Cavaliers. They were 
noted for their conservatism, favoring well established insti- 
tutions, protecting the rights of property and favoring the 
regular orderly methods of business. 

They were never rigidly righteous, but liberal, generous, 
brave and disposed to mind their own business and let that 
of other people alone. 

The two fought each other repeatedly in England. 

The interference of the one with the business and institu- 
tions of the other, in this country, was one of the underlying 
or basic causes of the great conflict. 

I do not wish to be understood as asserting that all the 
people of this country belong exclusively to the one or the 
other of these types, for they are the extremes. They are 
greatly in the minority . 

A large majority of our people may be classed as interme- 
diary, and not belonging distinctively to either one of these 
classes. This middle class will in the course of time absorb 
the extremes and possibly produce men and women of greater 
excellence than either. 

Upon this great conservative mass the future peace and 
happiness of this country depend. 

The intermeddling of the Puritans and the hot-headed re- 

'^'*\ pulsiveness of the Cavalier leaders, notwithstanding they 

were largely in the minority, stirred\ip the strife, set fire to the 

forest and caused the great conflagration and suffering which 

ensued. 

The lesson it taught is of such weighty magnitude and 
solemnity that it is to be hoped that neither side will ever 
forget it, or allow its follies and cruelties to be repeated. 

An aggressive fanaticism meeting a brave and reckless de- 
fiance ignored the demands of reason, caused an ocean of 
tears to be shed, drenched the land in blood and sacrificed the 
lives of a million of men and untold millions of treasure. 

It is sometimes asserted that the war was a necessity 
merely to settle the construction of the Constitution. I think 
that is a mistake. It indicates a want of recollection as to 
the true causes of the war, or those who assert it have con- 
venient memories, or a genius for inventing theories of con- 
ciliation for our defeat. 

Contentions as to strict, or latitudinous construction of the 
constitution, as to partial legislation, unjust taxation and 
unequal commercial advantages, while producing temporary 
irritation and excitement, would never of themselves have 
influenced any of the States of the South to have attempted 
secession from the Union. 

SLAVERY. 

Every well informed person knows that the agitation of 



9 

the slavery question was the immediate and provoking cause 
of secession. 

The presence in our midst of the African race, for which 
they are in no wise responsible, has ever been the Pandora's 
box of our American politics. 

Slavery, it must be conceded, is contrary to natural right, 
but it was a lawful State institution, and so recognized by 
the Constitution of the United States. 

Being a State institution, it was the right of the State in 
which it existed to continue or abolish it. The responsibility , 
moral and otherwise, for its continuance belonged alone to 
the people of the State wherein it existed. 

The institution had come down to the Southern people 
through several generations. They had invested their money 
in slaves. Its nature and character were not generally un- 
derstood by the people of the North, in whose States it once 
existed, but had been abolished for many years. 

They professed to believe that men owned the flesh, blood 
and souls of their slaves, treated and disposed of them with 
no more regard for their well-being than if they were lifeless 
chattels. The owner of the Slave only had a right to control 
and dispose of his labor and inflict upon him such corporeal 
punishment as was allowable at the common law. Of course 
it was contrary to the black man's natural right to freedom, 
but it was the road by which he reached civilization. 

In every slave State the law made it a penal offense for the 
master not to provide a sufficiency of healthful food and 
clothing, or to unreasonably punish his slave, or to make 
him work on the Sabbath, and to kill him was murder. 

I knew a man to be tried the year before the war began for 
killing his slave, and he was convicted and sent to the peni- 
tentiary. (A voice from the audience: "He should have 
been hung, damn him !") Well, there are a good many peo- 
ple who deserve hanging and never get their deserts. The 
jury in that case were better judges than you or myself. 
Cruelties were in a good many instances practiced upon the 
slave and never detected and punished because it was diffi- 
cult to obtain the proof. The Negroes simply passed through 
the fiery furnace of slavery to reach civilization, which was 
the only road by which they could have obtained it. 

Interest and humanity united in making the master careful 
of the health and life of his slave. 

It was abuse, threats and impending assaults upon the 
rights of the State to regulate its own local and domestic af- 
fairs voiced by leading men of the puritanical type, who 
abused and traduced Justices of the Supreme Court for de- 
ciding that Slavery was lawful ; and who denounced the in- 
stitution and polygamy as twin relics of barbarism, as the 
sum total of all villainy, as a league with death and a coven- 



10 

ant with hell, until theii- doctrines incited a band of fanatics 
to believe that they were inspired b}^ Heaven to light the 
torch of revolution in Southern homes and to invade a Southern 
State for the purpose of inciting the slaves to insurrection, 
arson and indiscriminate murder of the white people ; and 
when the chief of these malefactors was executed church 
bells were tolled in some of the Northern cities to cannonize 
him as a mart^^'r. 

These were the irritating causes which aroused feelings of 
indignation and prepared the minds of the Southern people 
for secession from the Union. 

Then when a great and growing political party, confined 
alone to the Northern States, whose slogan was hostility to 
the institution of slavery, and whose orators were full of in- 
temperate denunciation of the Southern people, succeeded in 
electing their President, who had proclaimed the irrepressi- 
ble conflict — that this country must all be slave or free la- 
bor — the apprehensions of the Southern people were awak- 
ened to a common daiager — not about slavery alone , but that 
their ancient and well defined right to govern their own in- 
ternal affairs in their own way would be denied and destroy- 
ed, not directly, but by attrition, under the guise of law and 
constitutional administration. (Sensation and dissent in the 
audience.) I know that some of you Union men do not relish 
what I am saying, but liear me through ; I will ^tell you the 
truth and give you nothing but facts. 

SECESSION. 

Conventions were called and assembled in the different 
states of the South, each lo decide for itself what should be 
done . 

Eleven of these conventions, holding that the Union was a 
voluntary one, and that it was no longer a safe-guard and 
protection, but a menace to their rights, resolved, to withdraw 
from it and form another Union in which it was believed 
there would be peace, harmony and security of rights result- 
ing from homogeneity of interests. 

They did not stop to consider collateral questions, nor 
what might logically follow their action in case of success. 

They reasoned sylogistically thus : If the Union was a 
voluntary one entered into by the States for their mutual 
benefit and protection, then when in the opinion of a State 
such security was no longer guaranteed, but jeopardized, or 
denied, it had the right to withdraw from such a Union ; and 
if a State had the right to withdraw, or secede, it followed 
as a logical sequence that the Union had no right to coerce 
such State to remain within it or to return after having 
withdrawn from it. 

But the Union denied that it was a voluntary one and as- 
serted a paramount and perpetual Nationality, and under the 



11 

Constitution it claimed the right to coerce the States to re- 
main within it. However, illogical, this was the doctrine of 
the Unionists. 

Thus was presented a great issue which unfortunately our 
constitution provided for no umpire to peaceably adjudicate, 
and hence the question was necessarily submitted to the 
arbitrament of arms — the Court of last resort among Nations. 

It was not jealousy and hatred we bore towards our North- 
ern brethren . It was not their successful rivalry of us in 
trade and commerce ! It was not an ambitious lust for power 
nor a spirit of unrighteous dictation which led the serrid 
ranks of the South to battle . 

It has been asserted by some of the distinguished speakers 
here who served in the Union army that the abolition ofslavery 
was one of the grand objects for which the war was waged. I 
deny this proposition. The resolution adopted by Congress de- 
claring war against the seceded states set forth the purpose to 
be "The restoration to the Union of the revolted States^ with 
all their rights, dignities and institutions unimpaired;" and 
slavery was the chief institution. During the first two years 
of the war whenever slaves escaped from their owners and 
entered the lines of the Union army they were returned ; and 
you could not more deeply offend a Union soldier than to tell 
him he was fighting for the freedom of the negroes. He 
would indignantly deny it and say he was fighting for the 
maintenance of the Union. When President Lincoln called 
for seventy-five thousand troops at the beginning he supposed 
that 90 days' service was as long as they would be needed. 

• It was supposed that the slaves would rise in insurrection, 
assert their freedom, lay waste the country, slaughter the 
whites and all would be ended within that period. To the 
surprise of the people of the North not a single lawless out- 
rage was committed by any slave throughout the seceding 
states, on any white person, during the entire war. They 
remained at home, labored and made supplies for the support 
of the women and children and our armies in the field. 
While this state of affairs continued the Confederates were 
triumphant in all the principal engagements. 

Mr. Lincoln was an abolitionist, but it is a great mistake 
to suppose that for this reason and his sympathy for the 
slave induced him to put forth his emancipation procla- 
mation. Prior thereto he suspended General Schenck from 
command in Maryland because he undertook the emancipa- 
tion of the slaves, which Mr. Lincoln said was in violation of 
the Constitution. His proclamation was issued, after due 

• consultation with his cabinet, as a war measure. He re- 
garded the slaves as contraband of war because an aid to the 
enemies of the Union. The terms of the proclamation were 
for the Southern States to lay down their arms and return to 



12 

their former positions in the Union, and if they failed to do 
this by the 1st of January, 1863, -he declared their slaves 
thereafter to be free. He admitted that he had no other 
power to abolish slavery. If the South had been fighting 
for slavery, we had then but to lay down our arms and re- 
turn to the Union with that institution which would have 
been in accord with the purpose of Congress in declaring the 
war. But we were fighting for separate national existence 
and paid no attention to the proclamation, and slavery was 
abolished as a result of the war. 

It was not for slavery as such, for the majority of our men 
never owned a slave. A large majority of our soldiers were 
poor laboring men. They were horrified at the idea of four 
million emancipated slaves being turned loose in their midst, 
raised to the equality of citizenship, invested with the elect- 
ive franchise and brought into competition with them as free 
laborers which aroused the pride of race superiority, and the 
invasion of their right of local or State government, offended 
alike the dignity of these men and the slave owner ; they 
stood united and fought like devils, as every Union veteran 
will testify. 

For two and a half years of the immortal conflict olir flag 
floated triumphantly on nearly a hundred fields of battle. 

We fought with the same spirit of our revolutionary sires, 
who bought with their precious blood the privileges we now 
enjoy. 

We fought for the right of our States to regulate and gov- 
ern their own aff'airs, free from the dictation of others, and 
to form such compacts and associations with each other as 
would serve best to preserve their mutual rights of local gov- 
ernment. We fought for the right as God gave us to see the 
right . 

State allegiance and State pride, which sprang from the 
love of home and its sacred precincts, sent our gallant men 
forth with the prayers and blessings of wives, mothers, sis- 
ters, daughters and sweethearts, armed with stout hearts and 
willing hands to meet three fold their number in the death 
grapple of red-handed war. 

The love of home is a sentiment which pervades every land 
that is watered by the king of floods and all his tributaries. 

It is founded in nature diff'ering only in degree in different 
races of men, and is everywhere the tap-root of the loftiest 
and truest patriotism. 

It is illustrafed, said Erskine, in the person of an indig- 
nant Indian Prince whose country was being invaded and 
occupied by white men. 

Addressing the Governor of the colony, while surrounded 
by his followers and holding in his hand a bundle of sticks 
as the notes of his unlettered eloquence he said ; 



13 

"Who is it that causes this river to rise in the high moun- 
tains and empty itself into the ocean? Who is it that causes 
to blow the loud winds of winter and that calms them again 
in summer? Who is it that raises up these lofty forests and 
blasts them with the quick lightning at his pleasure? The 
same Being tLat gave to you a Country on the other side of 
the great water, and gave this to us, and by this title we will 
defend it." 

(Throwing his tomahawk on the giouaa and raising the 
war cry of his nation.) 

A true American illustration of this sentiment is found in 
the heroic conduct of Col. Travis and his 188 Texans at the 
Alamo. They resolved to resist Santa Anna's advance with 
4000 men. 

Travis' appeal to his men was brief ; he said : "We are 
Texans? Here are our homes and our loved ones ; let us re- 
solve to die where we are , in their defense . If any man fear 
the responsibility, let him step forward and he shall be dis- 
charged and allowed to retire." 

One man alone embraced the opportunity and retired in 
disgrace while escape was practicable. All the others, in- 
cluding Travis, Davie Crockett and Bowie, fell at their posts, 
and to-day you can read the everlasting message to their 
countrymen, engraved upon the little monument to their 
memory in the old Capitol of Texas : "Thermopalae had her 
messenger of defeat; the Alamo had none." 

Nowhere on earth is the love of home and pride of local 
government more deeply implanted, or m.ore potential, than 
among the people of the Southern States. 

INEQUALITY OF FORCE, 

Conceding equal patriotism and bravery to those who bore 
aloft the standards of the Union, the imperishable glory of 
the Confederates conspicuously appears in the inequality of 
numbers, resources and appliances of war. 

Just think of that inequality ! Eight millions on our side 
against twenty-five millions of people on the other and the 
whole world to recruit from. 

You with a government of unlimited credit, exhaustless 
resources, an ample supply of the best arms and munitions 
of war, and a commerce but little disturbed : 

The Confederacy deficient in all these and her ports closed 
and blockaded ; without even the nucleus of an army or 
navy ; without arms or ammunition ; without a commissa- 
riat ; without money ; without credit ; without factories, and 
accustomed only to the peaceful pursuits of husbandry, were 
armed with nothing at the beginning save our own stout 
hearts and the manly resolve to vindicate our i ights at every 
hazzard. 



14 

A STORY OF CAPT. LAIRD AND THE POLES. 

NothiDg more forcibly illustrates the destitution and deter- 
mination of our people than an occurrence at Island No. 10 
in the Mississippi River. General Tilgman was in command 
of four Regiments and one or two of them were armed with 
old George Law muskets and the others with poles cut some- 
what in imitation of wooden guns. The General told the 
field officers that he would have the long roll beaten after 
midnight to see how the company officers and men would 
take it. When it occurred, Colonel Baker said he went to a 
position from which he could observe his Regiment unseen 
by the men. Captain Laird's company was from Coffee 
County, in South Alabama. He had a long flowing red 
beard and green eyes and would fight anything in the shape 
of an enemy. He had an old long Cavalry sabre drawn and 
was walking up and down in rear of his company, looking 
like Goliah with his weaver's beam. His first Sergeant, a pale 
faced uneducated man, who talked with a long drawling 
voice, but had an abundance of good hard sense, said : "Cap- 
tain Laird, 'spose the yankees do come what are we gwine to 
do with these here poles?" That was a poser. The Cap- 
tain halted for a moment and then replied most vigorously : 
"Sergeant, throw your poles to hell, draw your pocket-knives 
and cut them to the hollow, G — d d — n them." (Laughter 
and applause.) 

The records show the total enlistments in all the Confed- 
erate armies during the war to have been but little more 
than 600,000; while in all the armies of the Union there 
were over 2,800,000. It is fair, however, to state that a larger 
per centage of the latter were re-inlistments than of the for- 
mer, and a larger invading force is often equaled by a smaller 
one acting on the defensive. 

Notwithstanding the great disparity in numbers and our 
destitution of the sinews of war, for four immortal years our 
flag floated in the breezes of heaven as the symbol of the 
storm-cradled Nation. 

But as time rolled on the Confederate lines became more 
and more attenuted. When the rolls were called there was 
no response to three-fourths of the names upon them ; those 
who did not answer were disabled or dead. 

Superiority of numbers, improved by discipline and exper- 
ience, enabled the Union forces to beat us back, until they 
formed a cordon around the struggling Confederacy. 

We were beaten back step by step, but gave blow for blow 
as our comrades fell around us. 

No more heroic, or impressive scenes ever occurred in the 
history of warfare. 

But there must be an end to human endurance, and at last, 
when all our strongholds were captured, our rivers full of 



15 

hostile gun-boats, our railroads worn out and broken, our 
soldiers starving, or living on half rations, frequently shar- 
ing the corn with the horses ; when 300,000 hillocks marked 
the last resting places of those who had sacraficed their lives 
upon t^e altar of their own and their Country's honor — God 
Almighty forever bless their souls, — when widows and 
orphans became numberless, and grief and mourning were 
visitors to nearly every household, the hearts of our people 
sank in depair. Their sublime courage failed them and many 
wrote to their loved ones who still survived to give up the 
hopeless struggle and come home. 

To all such this was the supreme trial , the test of superior- 
ity ; — to decide between duty and affection to the family, 
with subjugation and defeat on the one side, and on the 
other an honorable death for the cause to which they had 
shown such devotion. 

Many abandoned the cause — I can scarcely call it desertion, 
although technically it was, — but many of the heroes of a 
hundred battles, veterans of Lee and Jackson and of Johnston, 
whose scarred bodies, tatterered flags and attenuated ranks 
told so eloquently the tale of their doings, preferred an honor- 
able death, and remained in line still ready to fight and to 
die for Dixie. 

They thus presented to the world an example of heroism 
similar to that of Cambronne, the commander of the last 
square of the old Guard at Watterloo. 

When the pile of corpses around the square was larger than 
the bulk of the living, their comrades groaning in death 
agonies, the French Army broken and fleeing, the Allies with 
eighty cannon shotted and ready to fire upon this devoted 
group, Generals Colville and Maitland, struck with admira- 
tion for such heroism, road forward and cried aloud, — "Brave 
Frenchmen surrender." 

The response came back in language as defiant and more 
contemptuous than that of, "The Guard dies, but never sur- 
renders." 

The cannons belched forth their thunder and when the 
smoke lifted a quivering heap of corpses alone remained. 

When Lee's great brain could plan no more ; when Johns- 
ton's cunning had given o'er, and nothing but omnipotence 
could have averted the surrender, these ragged veterans were 
still ready to march into the jaws of death, where the hellish 
din of battle drowned the shriks of the wouiided and the 
groans of the dying. 

Ah ! But who has language to portray the hei-oism of such 
brave souls? They stood by their colors unfliiichingly, when 
carnage, ruin and death reigned supreme. 

They wen^ with Gordon in the last wild charge he made, 



16 

"While their was not a man dismayed, and all the world 
wondered." 

THE END. 

The great drama drew rapidly to a close and the star of 
hope which had shown with such brilliant lustre in the con- 
stellation of nations, went down beneath the Southern hori- 
zon on the field of Appamattox to rise no more forever. 

The high court of force had sealed its decree and thereby 
blotted the Confederacy out of the firmament of nations. 

To us it was an event of sorrow and sadness. To the other 
side it was a great triumph and day of rejoicing; but, my 
friends, the decision was the most expensive ever rendered 
in the history of the world. 

No other nation would have made such herculean efforts 
and expended such incalculable sums of money to have 
achieved success as did the Union . With all our disadvantages 
and one-third of the population of the seceding states open 
enemies to us or in sympathy with the union, and nearly 
600,000 soldiers in the Union armies which you obtained 
from Europe for the bounty, notwithstanding all these dis- 
advantages of the confederates the fighting we did would 
have whipped any other nation than the United States. (Ap- 
plause from both sides.) 

The total taxable value of our property at the beginning of 
the war was five and a quarter billions of dollars. 

The cost to the Union of our subjugation, including pen- 
sions, up to last year has been eight and a quarter billions, 
or three billions of dollars more than all the property, includ- 
ing slaves, in the eleven seceding States was worth at the 
beginning of the struggle. 

Though hard to do, we accepted the decision with the same 
good faith and manliness with which we had fought for our 
convictions. 

While one might as well undertake to disprove the divinity 
of Christ to the ecumenical council as to argue to an old Con- 
federate veteran against the right of secession, yet the exer- 
cise of that right, at the time and in the manner it was done, 
will always be regarded by thoughtful men as a rash and in- 
considerate act. 

THE RESULTS. 

If success had not been impracticable on account of the 
disadvantages I have already enumerated, there were other 
almost insuperable difficulties in the way of the success of 
our cause. 

Had there been any great obstacle for a dividing line, a 
range of high mountains, or a body of water similar to the 
English channel, or had the Mississippi river flowed from 



17 

East to West instead of bisecting the Confederacy, complete 
separation would have been both wise and practicable. 

PI ad we succeeded with a mere imaginery line of separation 
the tendency to contlict would have been as certain and more 
frequent than that between England and Scotland before they 
united in one government. 

Permanent peace would have been impossible. 

While the right of secession, to my mind , was beyond contro- 
ve]'sy, yet when put into practice might have proven a boom- 
erang, for it is equally clear that it would have estal)lished 
the right of disintegration. 

The congenital germ of dissolution would have produced 
constant apprehension, and confronted by our own precedent 
we could not have questioned the right of any State to secede 
from the compact ; and hence, had we succeeded, we might, 
ere this, have had two or more confederacies. 

Another consolation for our defeat is that we have escaped 
the danger of the multiplication of governments on this con- 
tinent, which, if brought about would result, as it has in 
Europe, in large standing armies, burdensome taxation to 
maintain them, and involvment in bloody wars, threatening 
the destruction of liberty itself. 

Slavei'v was destroyed as a result of the war, but it was an 
institution whicli has served its purpose in the civilization of 
the African race in our midst so far as it could be done through 
such an institution ; and under the laws of an All-wise Prov- 
idence when an institution ceases to be of utility its destruc- 
tion will follow. And now that it is numbered with the 
things of the past, no one would have it reestablished. 

The earnestness and gallantry of our soldiers on both sides 
will forever command the admiration of the world ; and while 
hundreds of thousands of valuable lives were lost and the 
land draped in mourning, on the other hand there was a vast 
impetus given to education, a great advancement in science, 
the development of genius which has given to the nations 
of the world their iron-clad navies and other destructive 
engineery which are contributors to peace and will in the 
future save the lives of millions of men. 

Alabama, with a population of 526,271, equipped and sent 
to tlie field 100,000 brave Confederate soldiers and 0,000 who 
fought on the Union side, while w^e left at home 430,000 
slaves., \ 

My State furnished a greater number of soldiers to the war 
than she had voters. My friend, Gen. Jno. B. Gordon, one 
of the bravest of the brave, whom we have with us to-day, 
went to the front from Alabama. 

The effect of the war upon the character of the Federal 
Government was tersely expressed by tlie Supreme Court of 



18 

the United States in n single sentence: "An indestructible 
Union comj)Osed of indestructible States !" 

THE BLUE AND THE GRAY. 

Something over two years ago, at the great naval review, 
when the Dolphin, with the Secretary's flag flying, passed 
out of Hampton Roads and by the long line of splendid ships 
of our new nav}^ — fifteen in number — each fired a salute of 
seventeen guns ; and when the longer line of foreign ships 
was passed old admirals with uncovered heads dipped their 
colors and each ship fired seventeen guns ; and the forts in 
New York harbor gave foi'th like salutations to a man who 
stood up®n the forward deck of tlie Dolphin in plain citizen's 
attire. Withdus left hand he could not uncover his head in 
acknowledgment of these salutations for that arm hung limp 
by his side in consequence of a would he received at the 
Wilderness in 1SP>4 when he was trying to dissolve the Union. 

Under the old moribund statutes he was ineligil)le to even 
a lieutenancy in the army, or navy ; yet, he is the commander 
of all the powerful ships and skillful officers of the United 
States Navy. 

Who is this man, and how did he obtain that position? 
Hillary A. Herbert, of Alabama, an old Confederate colonel. 
He obtained the position from the same hand that made a 
distinguished Union general Seci-etary of State. 

Gresham and Herbert — I'nion and Confederate — the Bine 
and the Cray — All distinction on account of the side a man 
espoused in our war stricken down, and all alike, again 
citizens of this great Republic. Thank God and Grover 
(/leveland ! 

We recognize that "The Union and the Constitution are 
one and inseparal^le now and forever." 

While we moisten with our tears the ashes of our fallen 
comrades we can say : 

Tliat "Tlie graves of llie dead with the grass overgrown, 
Sliall still lie the footstool of liberty's throne." 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




